Legend of the Seeker #6: Elixir/Nov2008

[Staffan]

I didn't get a "don't do drugs" vibe out of this episode. It could've been there, but I feel like they could've made it more obvious and chose not to. It would have been very easy for them to make potions physically addictive - then it definitely would've been "don't do drugs."

You have outsiders moving into town selling magic stuff that let people escape from their dreary lives, and their sole motivation becomes acquiring more of those potions because the brief period of magic is so exhilerating that everyday troubles like putting food on the table become irrelevant, and some people even stealing to raise magic money, and you don't see the drug angle? Heck, it even had "the first one's free."

 

[Farganger]

You have outsiders moving into town selling magic stuff that let people escape from their dreary lives, and their sole motivation becomes acquiring more of those potions because the brief period of magic is so exhilerating that everyday troubles like putting food on the table become irrelevant, and some people even stealing to raise magic money, and you don't see the drug angle? Heck, it even had "the first one's free."

Indeed. This episode had a very 80s vibe in some way. A just-say-noishness, as it were.

 

[Darth Shoju]

You have outsiders moving into town selling magic stuff that let people escape from their dreary lives, and their sole motivation becomes acquiring more of those potions because the brief period of magic is so exhilerating that everyday troubles like putting food on the table become irrelevant, and some people even stealing to raise magic money, and you don't see the drug angle? Heck, it even had "the first one's free."

If that's the case, then wasn't the moral of the episode that "drugs aren't necessarily bad, depending on how you use them" ?

I really don't think they were going for an anti-drug message just because the selling of magic had parallels to drug usage. To me it seemed they were going for a "with great power comes great responsibility" angle.

 

[DonTadow]

Remember that comment I made last week about the magic in the show having a king of D&D feel? This is all I could of in a certain scene during the episode:

Zedd: Low magic is the best! Too much is is unbalacing!. Even +1 swords should be rare!
Josiah: That's sooo old school. I need to use my Brew Potion feat so I can have the appropriate wealth for my level.

Later....

Zedd: I'm glad 4e has made the low magic campaign viable again! Sucks to be you!

I don't know, i accompany low magic with not having supermen to replace them . Iron Heroes, Conan, Black Company... all great low magic alternatives in 3.5 without overpowering the pcs.

 

[Merkuri]

From what I remember of the books she doesn't use her power so much as contain it

Ah, that makes sense. It fits with what I remember and seems to fit the show as well from what I've seen so far.

 

[Orius]

I didn't get a "don't do drugs" vibe out of this episode.

It was there, but not badly overwhelming. I saw it, but I prefered to focus on the low-magic angle because I thought it would get more laughs here. How disappointing....

 

[Orius]

From what I remember of the books she doesn't use her power so much as contain it, so she can touch people safely but if she gets drunk, drugged or uh, has a really good time her concentration can fail and it accidently goes off because it's concentration stopping the power, not concentration to use it.

She said as much in this week's episode.

 

[Wycen]

I thought the "don't do drugs, kids" message was pretty heavy-handed throughout the episode.

That said, I didn't see Zedd as being pro-lowmagic per se. More along the lines of "Magic is powerful stuff, and you should have to work at it before being able to use it, because that way you appreciate what it can do and its consequences."

He didn't seem to have that kind of objections to the cartomancer in an earlier episode - his objections there were more of a "this is dangerous to us" character rather than giving untrained people access to magic items.

He also don't seem to object to people selling magical services directly (which seems to be reasonably common), presumably because then there is still someone trained who has to actively use magic.

Well, the Seeker did ask the mage "Are you making this up as you go along?"

I liked the episode. Reminded me of something, I just can't put my finger on it right now. Either another scifi show or perhaps game material I've read recently...just can't remember.

 

[Orius]

This week's repeat.